Brighton & HA vs Liverpool FC - FA Cup - Jan 29 [R]

It wasn't even that bad. it was a tight game, won by a great goal. Salah missing chances doesn;t help things either. Darwin also brought an unwillingness to pull the trigger quickly into the game from the bench.
Time to start Nunez (if we were resting him in case his injury wasn't up to 90 mins - that precautionary aspect should be over with now). he's a dangerous player and we need dangerous players out there.

 

ideally I see Jota as a switching back-up to LW and CF, with Diaz and Nunez as the main guys there....

 

This will all depend on what Klopp sees as the issue— for a long time he’s dismissed the idea of the midfield being a problem, tinkering as he has other areas of the squad. He’s partly right, the front line no longer installs fear and, this will attract peter, maybe we should have let Salah go in the summer when his agent was acting the bellend. That said, the glaring issue is the middle of the park where Fabinho and Henderson are shells of what they used to be with no sign they’ll ever get any near their potency.

As soon as he admits that, the rebuild will start.

 

Don't lose sight of the effect of the WC. Henderson, by his own admission, found the days and weeks post WC very, very tiring. I’m sure there are many WC participants who would agree.

Now I know Henderson wasn’t exactly Mr Reliable pre-WC but then again the whole squad was similarly suffering. Due, I believe, to a quad-chasing season last year and a truncated pre-season which included an unnecessary Asian tour.

I’ve zero doubt that next season Henderson or Fabinho will be better than say 2-3 seasons ago. That’s simply not how football, physiology and aging works. But I do think that so many WC players will be back to their normal selves (hello, KdB) next season with proper post season rest.

It’s telling now that Klopp seems to have settled on midfield three and indeed the whole team (because of injuries) who had little WC experience. Look at the team that started against Brighton on Saturday.

Alisson (WC)

TAA (WC, but no minutes)
Konate (WC, all the way to the final)
Gomez (no WC)
Robertson (no WC)

Bajcetic (no WC)
Thiago (no WC)
Keita (no WC)

Elliott (no WC)
Salah (no WC)
Gakpo (WC)

It would appear that Klopp et al have had the realization thrust upon them that those with a lot of WC minutes are just not reliable enough to start.

I haven’t followed City or Arsenal enough to know if they are having similar problems, but I do know that the media aren’t salivating over KdB, Saka and so on as they have in previous seasons.

As much as this season sucks and as much as a rebuild is necessary, the team and the players are nowhere near as bad that calls for wholesale changes such as selling 10 starters or whatever.

The key to a successful season next season will be finding the sweet spot of jettisoning the real over-the-hill players while keeping those who have played too much football in the last 18 months and just need a rest.

 

I've gradually edged into the 'need for wholesale changes' brigade , Sam . I think the squad needs a serious rebuild and that will not be accomplished overnight .

And our decline is happening while Arsenal look better than they've been for years. City is City , always strong. Chelsea are signing every Tom , Dick and Harry , Utd have finally shown improvement and Newcastle are on the verge of joining all of them as their oil money begins to come into play.
We're well off it this season and without sizeable investment not much is going to change.

 

People have been saying this every time we go through a bad stretch- for years.

But just last year we played in every single game possible, won 2 cups, a champions league final and nearly the league.

It's lazy reasoning.

It's massive injuries and an unreplenished midfield. Or are you saying that after all these years under Klopp, the league has just NOW, this season, figured him out?

 

Disappointing and the timing isn't good . He's become a key player at the back for us imo.

 

we need a new dictionary to describe our injury situation.

what's the plural of "fukked"?

 

Trumped?

 

I can easily see that perspective, but I do hew to the old adage that a team doesn’t get great or awful overnight. There’s no way that a team that was on the cusp of a quadruple suddenly becomes Everton.

I’m not denying for a moment that there’s deadwood in the squad (both age and ability) that must be jettisoned. However, let’s allow for a mid-season WC which has disrupted matters hugely, plus a very ill-advised pre-season schedule after a 60 games+ season.

So, for instance, Henderson and Fabinho. While I think Henderson will need close scrutiny, I believe that Fabinho has another 2-3 seasons at the top left in him and that this season’s performance has been down largely to not enough recovery time, too many games played and a disruptive WC.

I might be in favor of keeping Henderson (I’d need convincing), but equally I would not be in favor of getting rid of Fabinho (I’d need convincing).

 

We won't become Everton . I think we're more likely to be ManUtd or Arsenal of the past four seasons ie just hovering around 6-8th not good enough to get into top four .

Why such an amazing drop off? I think we've been hit by an almost perfect(imperfect) storm .
FSG's strategy of sell to buy doesn't work so well when players are allowed to run down their deals and walk away for nothing. Thats vital cash for refreshing with replacements flushed down the drain. Then we've got older or injury prone guys who should have been moved on and younger players brought in but instead we persisted with them and that's a big part of our problems.

Most of the focus has been buying forwards ,Jota ,Diaz , Nunez , Elliott , Carvalho and Gakpo at the expense of our midfield

. I like Jota and Diaz , Elliott shows promise but not a sure thing yet for me. Still have some concerns whether Nunez is good enough for a Liverpool side with top four ambitions. Good player but comes with flaws. Also not convinced with Carvalho either. Another good player but is he Liverpool good or Fulham/Everton/Soton level good? Salah still putting up decent numbers but looks a ways off his best . Gakpo , too soon.

Other than Thiago and a loan for some guy called Arthur we did nowt in midfield . A midfield which btw horrifies me this season. Aging Thiago and young Bajcetic are the only players worth mentioning . The rest could be replaced and I wouldn't be unhappy about it.

As for our def Trent & Robbo are still deffo worth keeping . Konate is solid but Joe has been erratic. VVD and Matip are hitting 32 soon so while we desperately try to regenerate the midfield we also need to be planning for the succession of those two cb's possibly three..

If I really look at the squad dispassionately with my red tinted glasses off I don't see how we have enough cash to make the amount of quality changes to make us top four competitive quickly. Rather I do envisage a slow process bringing in a couple of midfielders and having to still rely on guys who are probably decent midtable players but not good enough to elevate us to the top. We'll have to stick with our defenders getting old while the midf is sorted with whatever cash we have. All this will take time me thinks.

Of course , perhaps Jurgen can work some more magic . Fingers crossed.

 

The kid is talented.
But I said at the time of signing him "no thank you" because he is a walking injury. He's never had a full season as a professional without spending serious time in the treatment room and so it's proven.
We need a full court press to sign N'Dicka this summer. Younger and fitter than Konate and every bit the imposing specimen.

 

Fundamentally, yes. I agree - it's this.
Figuring out balance against the idea that Thiago, Fab, Hendo was a dead duck this year (while Naby did his usual wheelchair stint and Jones too) left us in a hole, one deepened substantially by the unavailability of our most potent front-line(s)